The present invention pertains to a method for weapon effect simulation an appliance to carry out this method according to the generic term for training at least two participants with direct aimed weapons with pulsed laser beams, whereby each participant is provided with an attacking system and a target system. The attacking system has a laser pulse transmitter and a laser pulse receiver and the target system has a retro-reflector.
A similar appliance has been published in DE-PS 32 34 949. From this patent specification an appliance is known which simulates gun fire among exercise participants by using firstly a laser transmitter attached to the weapon which, during simulated firing, sends laser pulses to determine the position of the target object, secondly an optical receiver to detect laser pulses reflected by the target and thirdly an evaluation unit to obtain the hit or miss result which then is transmitted to the target by coded laser pulses from the above described transmitter. When acting as target the above described appliance is equipped with reflector elements for laser pulses as well as with at least one optical receiver and decoder for receiving coded laser pulses and for acquiring the hit or miss information contained within, whereby the reflector elements and optical receivers are distinct devices located at a certain distance to each other.
A similar gunnery simulator is known from DE-PS 22 62 605. In that patent it is demonstrated how, by optical transmission of the impact result data of the "attacker" and by consideration of the "target's" self protection, a realistic scenario is being set up, which facilitates the simulated combat of combined weapons.
Modern equipped armies use laser simulators in marksmanship training and force-on-force training for direct firing weapons. Known laser simulators make use of pulsed laser sources. For technical reasons, and in order to be compatible to simulators already in use, all present laser simulators work at a wavelength of approximately .lambda.=900 nm. GaAs solid state laser diodes are preferred. Within all efficient laser shot simulators each participant is attacker and target at the same time and is equipped with retro-reflectors in addition to his weapon simulator. Surveying of retro-reflectors which act as a reference for the target's position and the data link from attacker to target is achieved by pulsed laser sources. The laser simulator of the attacking system can precisely calculate in advance the position of the simulated round in the target plane; this is made possible because factors which influence the point of penetration, like the target's distance and speed, can be measured with eye-safe laser pulses. Adding data of further sensors to this, influences like the attacking weapon's tilt, the ballistics, the time of flight of the round or missile, the superelevation and lead, the gunner's aiming quality and so on can be taken into account to calculate the point of penetration.
From the technology used by even the most efficient laser shot simulators developed and introduced so far emerges the following: On the one hand, for the target's simulation system many data from the attacker (type, ammunition, target distance, etc.) are known which are transmitted optically during engagement and so here, while considering their own vulnerability, the effect can be determined. On the other hand and as a severe drawback, the attacking system only has information about the position of one or several of the target's reflectors.
For a comprehensive training of soldiers under realistic conditions it is necessary to exercise participants from different arms of the service like infantry, armored infantry and tank corps jointly. All exercise participants have to be provided with laser shot simulators. Particularly when infantry takes part in such training, by the great number of reflectors, one might get an excessive amount of reflexes to laser ranging signals, which could make an exact evaluation impossible. It cannot be avoided that sometimes infantrymen, with their reflectors, are positioned on or close to their vehicles accidentally or intentionally, which causes the simulator of the attacking system to use a falsified target position for its calculations, or eventually even prevents several targets from being properly engaged. Thus, the exercise participant is trained a simulation specific attitude and it is doubtful whether the training aims can be achieved.